Cereus Calluna
by Scheherazado
Summary: "If you want to test a man, show him what he desires." Most tournaments have fame and fortune as their prize; Cereus Calluna has the prize of your deepest wish granted: the perfect bait for the master trap. Be careful what you wish for.
1. Single Daffodil

**Chapter One: Single Daffodil  
><strong>

One might think it was empty, in the dark tower.

Dark silhouettes, barely visible against the night, were inanimate. Silence reigned; not a breath nor a heartbeat sounded in the circular room. The glass tables, lavish couches, tall book-cases; all perfectly undisturbed, as if no-one had laid eyes on them in years.

Yes, a curious onlooker would immediately make the presumption that there was no life in the dim room.

And that curious onlooker would be wrong... or would he?

If that curious onlooker was perceptive enough, most unlikely, he would see one of the silhouettes give the slightest twitch. And if that curious onlooker had sharp enough vision, he would see that it was the silhouette of a wing, and that silhouette of a wing was attached to the shadow of a girl, who glided down from her perch on the windowsill to stand, or float, really, no more than two inches off the ground.

The strange winged girl half-walked, half flittered over to where two other shadows hovered over a chessboard, spreading her iridescent dark-violet wings to lighten her step. The two figures, a boy and girl, remained inanimate, not even bothering to acknowledge her presence, focused on the mismatched black and white squares. The onlooking girl frowned; she had never really understood the confusing game. However, the two playing seemed to enjoy it.

"Check, Gyrfalcon," said the girl playing, as she daintily moved her white Nidoqueen to pressure the boy's black Nidoking. The boy spread out his white dappled black wings as he shifted his position, a thoughtful look coming upon his face as he contemplated the move. The girl, his opponent, twitched her opposing black dappled white wings happily.

"Clever, Loon," Gyrfalcon complimented, and the girl, Loon, smiled dazedly, not even looking at the board as she anticipated her opponent's strategy. Gyrfalcon's light smirk faded as he analyzed the board to find an escape route for his king.

"You're getting rusty, Gyrfalcon," said a voice from behind the winged girl, along with a light laugh. "If you didn't even see the blatant opening to capture Loon's rook."

Gyrfalcon ran a hand through his hair as he examined the board, eyes glittering ruefully at his ignorance. "Sharp as always, Nightingale," he acknowledged, moving the marble Rapidash to take Loon's rook, at the same time freeing his king from the check. "Though you're right. The next _Cereus Calluna_ is coming soon. I'll need to tune up."

"Of course. This one is _special_, after all," the black-winged man called Nightingale said with a sinister chuckle, which Gyrfalcon joined in, before returning to his game.

The girl frowned, irritated at the fact that she didn't understand something. "Nightingale, what's '_Cereus Calluna_'?" the little girl asked, nibbling on her nails, a bad habit Skylark always reprimanded her about.

"Hmm, that's right, you're new, aren't you?" The black-winged man chuckled slightly. He stopped in front of a simple round glass table, on which a glass vase perched. A single flower rested inside, its pitch stem, darker than the night, arced towards the ground, contrasting with it's pure blossoms, which appeared to have a slightly silver glow against the shadowy darkness. Nightingale plucked the bloom from the vase, lifting it to street-lamp eyes to examine.

"White Heather," he answered simply, an eerie smile coloring his features. The girl pouted slightly, stretching her jewel-colored wings to their full span, a pitiful meter compared to Nightingale or Gyrfalcon's.

"I don't get it," she said in childish irritation. Nightingale laughed lightly, placing the soft plant back in its vase, where it arched back down to bow courteously.

"Of course you don't, Hummingbird," the man said, smiling slyly in response to Hummingbird's bird-like twitter of annoyance. "_Cereus Calluna_. It means white heather in Latin. And in the language of flowers, the white heather holds the meaning of '_Making wishes come true_'." At this statement, Hummingbird perked up noticeably.

"_'Making wishes come true_'..." The amethyst-winged girl smiled angelically. At the same moment, Gyrfalcon spoke up from across the room.

"That's checkmate."

* * *

><p>Sienna did not like waking up. Nor did she like getting prodded multiple times in the stomach, having water dumped on her, or Loren. No, she did not like Loren. Not at all. At least, for the moment, anyway.<p>

_Ugh... Who's poking me? I swear to Arceus I'll tear their head off._ Sienna flipped over in her bed, trying to get away from the prodding finger. _...Later._

"Can I do it _now_, Sealy? _Please_," a voice whined, annoyingly close to her ear. Sienna heard a rueful sigh, then a voice say dryly,

"Fine. Knock yourself out. But remember, the blame's on you." There was a short squeal of excitement, before...

"_Ahh!_" Sienna bolted up, bed-head hair soaked, along with her bed-sheets, the clothes in which she slept in, and pretty much everything else. Two girls, her room-mates that helped her pay her rent, stood nearby, one being a ginger that was laughing so hard she had to clutch her sides, the other a more subtle blackette who remained aloof, but was smirking slightly. The ginger held a bucket now half-full of water.

"Loren you asshole!" Sienna shrieked, attempting to hit the still-snickering redhead, who danced out of the way gleefully. This continued for about five more seconds, before the onlooker spoke up.

"Before you start ripping into each-other's throats," spoke Sealy, the black-haired girl. "You have mail, Sienna." Sure enough, Sealy held a crisp envelope between her fingers.

Sienna frowned, irritated at Sealy for prolonging her fight with Loren, but snatched the envelope anyways, not bothering to care that her hands still had drops of water on them.

"Read it!" Loren piped excitedly, leaning over Sienna's shoulder to examine the mail she held in her hand, and received an elbow to the solar plexus.

"Ha," Sienna laughed darkly, satisfied with her revenge. She turned her attention to the envelope. It was certainly different from the usual rental bills. The paper it was made from was a light gold in color. Oddly, there were no stamps or addresses, regular or return. Instead, an intricate wreath of black vines and white bell-shaped blossoms encircling a simple outline of a seven-petaled flower occupied the front of the envelope. When Sienna turned it around, a wax seal of the same seven-petaled flower sealed the envelope shut.

"Did you open it?" Sienna asked skeptically.

"Sure did, because _of course_ the seal is _perfectly_ untampered with, _despite_ the fact that we opened it. Oh, and Loren just _asked_ you to read it, because we _totally_ opened it and _already_ read everything it said. We just_ happen_ to _love_ hearing your voice in the morning," Sealy said with dry, biting sarcasm. Sienna chose to roll her eyes, slipping a nail underneath the envelope flap and breaking the seal.

The parchment she pulled out was as fancy as the envelope it came in. It was fancy, stiff and crisp white in color, fancily folded into three perfectly equal sections. The writing was fancily hand-written in fancy pitch black ink, which probably came from a fancy feather pen, with fancy cursive calligraphy, and a fancy gold seal with the fancy seven-petaled flower emblem fancily stamped into the bottom corner. Basically, it was pretty damn fancy.

Sienna began to read. _"Dear Sienna Roux."_

_"How exciting, it seems you have been invited to the upcoming Cereus Calluna, a competition that takes place only once every thousand years. How lucky you are. Of course, this is not your regular tournament; that would be rather boring, and I despise things being boring. No, this competition is not of the norm. For one, all the participants, including you, of course, have been specially selected for their skill and desire. This tournament will be taking place in Nusquam Locus, a little-known place that you will be transported to, free of charge, from a specially selected location in your vicinity. Now, you are probably wondering, 'What's the prize?'. Of course, the prize is something of high desire; after all, you can't have an entertaining tournament without something to fight for. The prize, my dear patron, is your deepest desire granted. In other words, a wish."_

_"Thank you for your cooperation, and I do hope to see you there. If you would like to contend, please pay a visit to the location below."_

Halfway through the letter, Sienna had obtained a sarcastic aristocratic accent, mocking the writer's formality, but towards the end, her voice shifted to a more uncertain tone. There was silence, before Loren burst out laughing, and Sealy smirked.

"Wow, how stupid is that?" Loren scoffed, rolling her eyes. "It's probably just a ploy for some pedophile to rape you. Having your wish granted? _Please_. At least he could have come up with something more believable."

"Yeah..." Sienna agreed, though somewhat dubiously. A voice in the back of her head nagged, _If it's just some random junk mail, why did they bother to go through the trouble of making up that whole story, and using such fancy paper?_

Sienna frowned at her internal thoughts, and to get away from the curious eyes of her room-mates, suddenly said, "Hey, y'know what, I'm going to go and train. See ya'."

Without giving either girl a chance to question her, Sienna darted out of the room, out of the house, and eventually, out of Blackthorn, and into Route 45, where rock cliffs and tall grasses surrounded her, and she could think without the prying eyes and distracting antics of her friends. The Hikers and Picnickers had not yet staked their position, or perhaps they had just accepted that nobody wanted to go down a cliff to battle them. Either way, the Route was silent, save for the chittering birdsong of Pokémon.

_A wish, any wish, granted._ Sienna paced, mulling over the contents of the letter._ I could bring _her_ back. She would be here and _he_ would be happy and we could all be together again,_ Sienna thought. At the same time, another voice reprimanded her.

_Yeah right. Even if there's such a thing as making a wish come true, it's still _your_ fault she_- Sienna shook the thought away before it finished, but not before the meaning had come across, causing Sienna to frown, sigh loudly, and consider punching the rock face she stood next to, but she decided against it.

She reached into her shoulder bag, dusky brown with a yellow sunflower pattern stitched into it, and pulled out the letter again, scanning the bottom. There was no signature, but in the corner, the words _'Dark Cave'_ were scrawled in neat handwriting. This only increased her apprehension. _What sorta place is this 'Nusquam Locus', if you get there via cave? And what kind of name is Nusquam Locus, anyways?_

She stared across the valley, where a black indent in the rock face signaled the entrance of Dark Cave, and then at the rickety wooden bridge that she would cross to have to get to that entrance. She sighed yet again. _You know what, I don't know why I'm stressing over this. I just go in there, see that nobody's there, and walk off. And if somebody tries to rape me, I'll sic Singe on them._

However, her confidence was not completely renewed. As Sienna marched across the bridge, her feet were heavy and hesitant enough to bring the creaking wood down, but miraculously, it stayed together, and she made it across safely. However, she hesitated in front of the entrance to the black cave, before making an irritated noise at herself.

_Stop hesitating! It's not like anything's going to happen when you go in there,_ she told herself in annoyance, ordering her stoic legs to move forward. Gathering a deep breath, she gathered her courage and walked into the inky blackness.

She wasn't sure how she knew her eyes fluttered shut; the darkness made it impossible to tell, but she remembered crashing to the ground, though not before seeing a pair of wings, dark even against the blackness of the cave, and a sinister laugh.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Trivia: <em>**

**_~The title of the chapter, the daffodil, symbolizes beginnings, rebirth, and regard. However, when it's a single daffodil, it can also symbolize misfortune. _**

**_~The place mentioned in the letter, Nusquam Locus, is Latin, and it means 'The Nothing Place'._**

**_~This is the third tourney fic I know of that starts with a chess game._**

* * *

><p><strong>Haha, first published writing in over a year~ And a tourney fic, nonetheless. I'm pretty sure this is a fic I plan on completing, but I say that about most of my stories, so just ignore me there. I'll be working on it over the summer a lot. I plan on breaking that habit of procrastination with this fic.<strong>

**Moving on to the only reason you even read this fic, the OC form. All OCs must be sent via PM, or I'll eat you. And your little OC too. If you have any questions, those can also be sent by PM.**

NAME: First and Last

GENDER: Male or Female. No hermaphrodites, sadly.

AGE: Thirteen and up.

HOMETOWN: Stick to the five major regions, please.

APPEARANCE: Please be detailed.

PERSONALITY: Again, detailed. I want a variety of colorful and unique personalities.

HISTORY: Let's not have too many Mary-Sues, shall we? I'm fine with boring histories as long as they aren't Mary-Sue.

WISH: This is one of the most important parts of the story. What is your OC's deepest desire? Also, don't give me a ton of "I want to bring my love/friend/pancake back to life" or something like that. If you want reincarnation as a wish, please PM me first. Other than that, be as creative as you wish.

POKEMON: At least three Pokémon, up to nine max. You're allowed to have Unova Pokémon. No legendaries. Include nicknames (if any), gender, and a short personality. Moves are not necessary.

**You may submit up to three OCs. Please be creative and unique; your OC will have a better chance of making more appearances. Also, detail is love.  
><strong>

**OCs will begin appearing in every chapter after this one. Also, while on the subject of OCs...**

The people in the beginning belong to me.

Sienna Roux belongs to Chewy-bakaa, or Chewpacabra, as she is known as now.

**Despite the fact that I made almost everything about her, it's still her character. BUT, Sienna, or any of my OCs, are NOT going to be winning the tournament, nor will they be the total focus of the story.  
><strong>

**Thanks for reading, and reviewing is lovely.**_  
><em>


	2. Snapdragon

**Chapter Two: Snapdragon  
><strong>

When Sienna started to regain consciousness, she was aware of a prodding in her side. A very familiar prodding in her side.

_Déjà vu_? Sienna thought, struggling to clear the fog from her mind. She was aware that she was lying on a soft surface that was most certainly not her bed. Her bed wasn't nearly as comfortable. Her vision was still black, but she did feel the tickle of a breeze playing with her hair, and the sound of rustling leaves and grass.

"Hey!" a voice suddenly shouted, exceptionally loud. Sienna started, bolting up into a sitting position instinctively in response to the loud voice still ringing through her ears. Or at least she tried to.

_"Owie!"_

_"The hell?"_

Sienna's skull collided into something hard, leaving her with a throbbing headache. The first thing she noticed was a girl her age, about fifteen, on the ground, clutching her head in pain, and Sienna was immediately concerned that she might have killed her. The poor girl was bone-thin and sickly-looking, with pale skin that had a wan tinge to it. Her clothes—a sky-blue tank-top under a black jacket made of semi-transparent material, and a frilly black skirt held up by a gold chain belt over blue leggings—hung loosely on her scrawny body, and numerous gold bangles and chains looked about ready to fall off her thin wrists, matching gold jewelry adorning her equally fragile neck. Luckily, Sienna found that this was not the case, when the odd girl started complaining.

"What the hell were you doing?" Sienna yelled in anger at the mystery girl, who looked up in confusion, blue eyes wide. Suddenly, she smiled widely.

"You're awake! Wow, I thought you were, I dunno, dead or something!" the girl piped cheerfully, adjusting the blue bow in her long hair: blond highlighted with cerulean. Her pain was seemingly forgotten as she sprang to her feet, then immediately tripped over air and face-planted into the ground. "Ow..."

Sienna was mystified by the antics of the overly-hyper girl, who was currently mumbling to herself. She went through different thoughts in her head, but finally decided on repeating her question from before. "What were you doing?"

The girl scrambled to her feet, thankfully not tripping this time. Dusting of her clothes, she smiled brightly once more and said, "Silly, I was waking you up! You shouldn't sleep on the ground like that, you could get pneumonia!" As she spoke, she wagged her index finger reprimandingly. She then paused from her speech, raising the previously waving finger to her pursed lips in deep thought, before adding, "Well, it's not like I know what pneumonia is, but it sounds really evil! And scary!" The strange girl giggled impishly, before rambling on about a variety of other subjects, that Sienna in no way cared about.

Sienna went from confused, to annoyed. Very quickly. Sienna did not deal with hyper people well. At all. To tune out the ramblings of the other girl, she closed her eyes, concentrating. _First train of thought, how did I get here... I was in the Dark Cave... but why? To train? I hardly ever go to Dark Cave to train._

As Sienna mulled over her thoughts, a few of the other girl's words managed to penetrate the barrier of her ears. "And then I was invited to this super-cool tournament! It was all 'If you win, you get your wish granted'! And then..."

_Tournament? Get your wish granted? Wish granted..._ Sienna snapped her eyes open and for the first time really noticed her surroundings without the haze of sleep clouding her vision.

Instead of the usual cerulean-blue, the sky was a shade of light turquoise. The field in which she stood in was made of a slightly gold-tinted grass. It matched the black trunks and autumn leaves of the trees scattered across the meadow. Some ways away she noticed a stream flowing despite the lack of any elevation in the ground. Mossy rocks were artistically placed, too perfectly to be natural, in a sort of rock garden. Off in the distance she spotted a brick pathway, as well as several small flower gardens, forming a park of sorts. She saw benches made of curving black iron and a fountain which burbled happily, a marble white Dewgong spewing water into the air. In the sky, powder-gray cirrus clouds lined themselves up in an odd formation, curving and spiraling around a single tower in the far-far distance, pure black with a silver steel skeleton holding it up. Sienna probably would not have noticed it if it weren't for its height and presence.

"What... What is this place?" Sienna murmured, perplexed and fascinated by this odd alternate world.

"Hmm? My dear, I'm sure you know the answer to that question~" an unknown voice purred. Sienna started at the unfamiliar voice. It had a trace of a giggle to it, similar to the other girl's, but a much more mocking kind of cheer.

"Who are you?" Sienna shouted, spinning around.

"Are you Arceus?" the blond girl exclaimed in shock, awe, and pure stupidity.

"Of course I am~" the voice sing-songed again, behind me. Sienna whirled around again, to meet nothing. "Where are you looking? I'm over here!" Annoyed, she pirouetted again, expecting to find air. However, she found her own clay-red eyes less than three inches from bright golden ones that examined her curiously.

"Ahh!" Sienna jumped back, arms flailing, and nearly bowled the other girl—who was standing behind her—over. The hyper girl instead jumped out of the way, tripped, and was now sprawled on the ground.

The golden eyes laughed. Or rather, the girl who owned the gold eyes laughed. "Aw, the Audiats are so cute this time!" Sienna's eye twitched, for numerous reasons, the three foremost being: she did not handle being called 'cute' well, she was perplexed by the term 'Audiat', and the gold-eyed girl's wings.

Wings. Some of the craziest wings Sienna had ever seen, and Sienna had seen pictures of a Sigilyph. Shaped similarly to a dragon's, a skeleton of ebony branches made up the frame of the wings. They provided something for the green leaves and brown pods to cling onto, creating a strange feathered appearance. They were definately the girl's most unique feature, but the rest of her wouldn't quite be called normal either. Her golden eyes were unnatural and eerie, but they matched the knee-length gold dress she wore, pitch black pupils coordinating with the dress' black ruffles and apron, which gave her the appearance of a really weird French maid. She only just managed to look Sienna at eye-level by floating a few inches from the ground. In one hand she held a white mug, in which the aroma of coffee flowed out of.

Perched on the bend in one of her wings was a sheep-like Pokémon. Its skin was coffee-black, and a shocking contrast of tufty white covered its back. Curls of green bordered its face, in which bright amber eyes peered. Sienna recognized it as a Whimsicott, a Pokémon native to Unova and found nowhere else. As far as Sienna knew, they were not in Unova.

The leaf-winged girl smiled slyly at Sienna's gaping mouth, twirling a lock of curly brunette hair as she did so. "It's impolite to stare, you know," she said casually, with a hint of smugness, fanning out her wings out and causing the leaf-feathers to rustle. The Whimsicott 'baa'ed in annoyance as it regained its balance. It then reached down and plucked one of the pods from the gold-eyed girl's wings, and split it open, reaching her tiny hand in to much on the contents. Inside were several white seeds that gave off a familiar rich scent. Chocolate.

"How can I not stare when you have wings? Made out of plants! That your Whimsicott is eating!" Sienna yelled irritatedly. The leaf-winged girl pouted, putting a hand to her hip. The other, which held her mug, she lifted to her mouth and took a swig from. She then smiled.

"Y'know, have you ever wondered if maybe it was you that's the weird one?" she said casually. Sienna's thoughts flung to her attire; a long-sleeved dull orange T-shirt, gray skirt, and black leggings. They had already dried from when Loren had dumped water on her, earlier. Her dark brunette hair was still as messy as ever, pinned up to appear shorter. Her bangs were held out of her burgundy eyes by orange clips. She frowned, maybe she wasn't the best groomed, but at least she didn't have wings.

"There's nothing wrong with me," Sienna scoffed. Her inner voice retorted bitingly, but she ignored it.

The other girl smiled in that smug way that made Sienna want to tear her wings off. "Maybe that's true in your world, but not anymore, _Sienna Roux_." Sienna stiffened_, _and her scathing inner voice muttered,_ Of course, she knows my name. Classic. Is this a badly written fanfiction or something?_

"Woah, that's such a cool name!" the other girl piped up cheerfully. Then she paused a second, the gears in her non-existent brain apparently working. "Wait a second, how did you know her name? Oh wait, I know! Are you, like, psychic?"

"Sure am, dearie." The winged girl giggled, and the Whimsicott bleated its amusement. Then her expression turned passive as she looked over the sickly-looking girl, then smiled in an eerie way. "Feeling well, Mia McCarthy? You don't look too good..."

Sienna was about to ask who 'Mia' was, and then realized she must be talking to the other girl. She frowned, it should have been a casual comment, but the way the winged girl said it...

Beside her, Mia became still. Her hyper bouncing ceased, the smile remained frozen on her face, and her blue eyes were blank and devoid of thought or emotion. For a second, Sienna thought Mia was going to go bat-shit crazy on the coffee-girl, but the blue-eyed girl simply unfroze, resuming her bouncing and smiling. However, out of the corner of her eyes, Sienna noticed that her eyes were still hollow.

"Wow, you know my name too? That's so cool! What's yours?" Mia asked, and her giggle seemed somewhat forced. The brunette chuckled, taking another swig from her steaming cup.

"My name, eh?" the winged girl paused a second, before smiling angelically. "I guess you can call me Cacao" The sheep-like Pokémon on her wing made an irritated bleating noise. "And you can call her Mocha. Nice to meet you, Sienna, Mia."

This unnerved Sienna even more, how this 'Cacao' person called them casually by their first names, despite the fact that they hadn't even introduced themselves to her. It couldn't be real. It had to be a dream. Sienna pinched her arm, but all it did was leave a white crescent. Noticing it, Cacao smiled again.

"Still don't believe it's real, do you?" This time her voice seemed slightly sympathetic. "Hmm, I guess I should start doing my job now. Boss gets annoying when he yells." Sienna perked up, and even Mia's eyes gained a hint of interest, suggesting that she actually had a trace of common sense.

"'What is this place?'," Cacao repeated Sienna's previous question. "Does the name Nusquam Locus ring any bells?"

Mia waved her hand in the air. "Oh, oh, pick me! It's from that letter thing!" Cacao took on a look of mock-shock.

"That it is!" she said, clapping sarcastically. "Welcome to Nusquam Locus. Home of the clinically insane," she added as an afterthought.

"Wait," Sienna interjected, not satisfied with Cacao's answer. "What exactly _is_ Nusquam Locus?"

Cacao pointed her coffee mug in Sienna's general direction, the Whimsicott copying her movements with a cacao bean. "A fine question from the young woman in the orange." The coffee-addict took another sip, biding her time.

"Nusquam Locus. You might not know this, but in Latin, Nusquam Locus means 'The Nothing Place'." _Yeah, of course I just randomly happen to know random words in Latin. It being a dead language and all, y'know._ "'The Nothing Place'. Quite a fitting name for a place like this. To put it as simply as possible, Nusquam Locus _is_ nothing."

"Sure, everything we see now is nothing. But it's not a dream. How does this make sense, exactly? And where exactly do the wings fit in?"

Cacao put a hand to her hips, an expression of pure mischief on her face. "I'm not telling~" she sing-songed. Mocha made a face, sticking out her tongue mockingly. Like trainer like Pokémon.

"...Fine. But at least tell me, what am _I_ doing here?" Sienna crossed her arms. "We're supposed to be here for some all-mighty tournament of doom, right?"

"Wrong!" Cacao exclaimed with a surprising amount of force, thrusting her coffee-mug-arm forward, nearly emptying the contents on Sienna's shirt, something she would like to have avoided. "You're here for _The_ All-Mighty Tournament of Doom." Cacao paused, eyes drifting to the side somewhat to stare at the distant tower. She then smiled in the smug 'I know something that you don't' sort of way. "Welcome to Nusquam Locus. Home of the Cereus Calluna, tournament of dreams, clash of desires. May your deepest wishes be granted."

* * *

><p>"Impressive, most people don't find the bar until after the ceremonies. Pity, I was looking forward to having the place to myself."<p>

"Ha. No way I would let you have all that beer to yourself, flower-boy."

Zeru Finn and Bugle had only met five minutes ago. Zeru Finn and Bugle were already best friends.

A muscular man despite his middle age downed another shot of ale down, slamming the glass against the counter. "Cocktail, get me more beer!" he called to a Gardevoir in a waitress' uniform, as if he had seen Pokémon act as waitresses his whole life. The Psychic-type crossed her arms in annoyance, not budging.

From the other side of the table, a younger man—wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a black vest and tie, as well as black dress pants—chuckled softly at the Gardevoir. "C'mon, Cocktail, give the man his beer." When the Gardevoir simply turned away crossly, Bugle sighed, running a hand through his ashy blond hair. "Cocktail, you know that every time I go back there my wings knock everything over."

The Gardevoir opened her slitted scarlet eyes wider to glance in amusement at the bartender's wings. They were the _epitome_ of masculinity. Vivid indigo and lavender flowers, tiny and bell-shaped, bloomed on light branches that made up the frame of the wings, that stretched for a wingspan of nearly two meters. Flower-wings, totally manly.

With a sigh, the green and white Pokémon lifted a white hand, which took on a blue glow in the dim-lit bar. A few seconds later, an amber bottle floated off the rack in the back, and with a flick of the wrist, it flew towards the winged man, who caught it deftly. He cracked the top off and poured the amber liquid into Zeru's glass, sliding the drink back.

Zeru took another sip of the drink, eyes glancing at something behind Bugle. "Dude. Is your Kecleon wasted?"

"Probably." Bugle didn't even have to turn around; he knew what he would see. A green chameleon half-passed out in a puddle of wine, surrounded by bottles of alcohol.

Zeru shook his head in admiration of the strange drunken Kecleon, chuckling in amusement. His gaze then turned serious, as he drummed his fingers against the ebony counter-top. "So, let's talk business."

Bugle raised an eyebrow as he leaned against a wall, careful not to damage his wings. "I don't like business. Business usually means work. And I don't like work."

"Why exactly do you own a bar, then? Not that I mind, of course."

Bugle cracked a grin. "'Cause it's fun to watch people get smashed."

Zeru shrugged. "Can't argue with that logic. Anyways, I'll make this business short, then. How exactly did you get your wings?"

"I thought I already told you. I'm an Ales Fio-"

"Not _why_ do you have wings. How did you _get_ them?" Bugle casually plucked an indigo blossom off his wings, smiling as if he had been expecting that answer.

"Hmm, wouldn't you like to know?" His demeanor was casual, but his golden eyes carried a hint of amusement and flashed tauntingly at the middle-aged man, who in turn, cocked his head at Bugle.

"I'd prefer to do this the easy way, but I have no problem taking this outside." Zeru cracked his knuckles threateningly. "So just tell me now, and I won't tear your pretty little wings off, kid."

Bugle simply tilted his head slightly, a smile still etched onto his face. "I wouldn't call me 'kid', if I were you. You shouldn't always judge people by their looks. It'll get you into nasty situations. Of course, you've had your share of nasty situations, haven't you?"

Zeru clenched his fist around his glass, threatening to shatter it. "I'll-" His voice trailed off as he noticed the figure behind Bugle. Cocktail's normally crimson eyes glowed threatening blue, sign of a Psychic attack. Floating above her ivory hand was a chipped alcohol bottle, jagged and dangerous, also shimmering with the same aura. Zeru pondered his chances of winning against an angry Gardevoir with a weapon. Or rather, an angry female Gardevoir with a weapon. Because it made all the difference.

Zeru was saved from making a decision when the amber bottle swung... towards Bugle. However, he stood still, unflinching, eyes crossing to examine the jagged glass less than an inch away from his face. He smiled, cheery as ever, as Cocktail sighed irritatedly, eyes dimming as the bottle dropped to the floor, shattering against the tile.

"You're cleaning that up, right?" Bugle piped, casual as ever. Cocktail shot him a look that said '_You know you're not supposed to do that'_, and Bugle sighed reaching over for a broom in the corner. Before he started sweeping up the shrapnel, however, he glanced at Zeru, before saying, "Drop the wings issue. You'll get your own chance to make your wish come true, in the tournament. Besides, I know you have trouble with getting kicked out of tournaments. Trust me, you don't want to know what happens when you break the rules of Cereus Calluna."

Then, as a cheery afterthought, he offered, "Meanwhile, why don't I supply you with some more beer?"

* * *

><p>Gabriel Volantis marveled at the sights surrounding him. They reminded him of the legends he would study; the unnatural colors, strange symmetry, but most of all, the strange winged girl that had confronted him earlier, and the things she had explained to him. Green skies, winged people, granting wishes... It was most odd, Gabriel concluded.<p>

He didn't know that it was about to get odder.

His dirty-blond hair whipped, his blue blazer flapped, and he had to squint his hazel eyes from the sudden burst of wind and light. It died down quickly, however, leaving in its place a wind-blown field, scattered dust, and a very miffed Gabriel. He found the culprit of the explosion, a girl with spiky and wind-blown scarlet hair, peering into a large hole, presumably from the explosion, where a slightly singed Electrode laid. Or stood, Gabriel couldn't really tell or care.

Gabriel frowned, and called out, "What were you doing!"

The girl tilted her head towards Gabriel, and he saw the other side of her face for the first time. Her other eye was covered by an eye-patch, and underneath it was what appeared to be a long burn mark. In fact, her arms and legs and legs were covered with red welts and black ash. He also noticed that she was grinning in a slightly crazed way. Only slightly, of course.

"Well, that winged chick told me this is a 'very special place'." The psycho-girl made exaggerated quotation marks at the words 'very special place', her voice obtaining a sarcastic tone. "So I wanted to see if this 'very special place's trees were incombustible. Turns out they weren't." The girl and her Electrode cackled in harmony, annoying and creeping Gabriel out at the same time.

"...Did you really have to blow it up?"

"Of course! Me and Boomboom had to show the tree who's boss!" she said, gesturing towards the Electrode. She then added loftily, "No surprise that we came out on top, of course."

"It's an Electrode versus a tree, of course you're going to win," Gabriel said in a slightly irritated tone. The girl cocked her head arrogantly and put her hands on her hips, posture tall and proud.

"Oh really? Then let me, Crash Fields, show you what we can _really_ do."

"Are you suggesting a battle, Miss Crash Fields?" Gabriel said with forced formality. The girl, Crash, giggled with wicked delight.

"Not too scared, are you?" she queried mockingly. Her Electrode copied his trainer's arrogant smirk, sparking in anticipation of the battle.

Gabriel tightened his fists, inhaling deeply to calm himself. He hated these types of people, acting high and mighty. "One on one?"

"Bring it."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Trivia:<strong>_

_**~The title of this chapter, the snapdragon, in the Language of Flowers, stands for deception, mystery, dazzling-ness, and presumption.  
><strong>_

_**~Bugle's namesake, the Bugle flower, in the Language of Flowers, means 'a cheerful soul'. Cacao comes from the cacao bean plant, used to make chocolate.**_

* * *

><p><strong>GUESS WHO UPDATED JUST IN TIME FOR THEIR BIRTHDAY!<br>**

**Anyways, I really do hate this chapter. It flows so... ugh. But at least I got it published in less than a month, so I'm happy. Next chapter will probably come quicker because it involves battles and battles are easier for me to write.**

**I know some readers will probably be skeptical about the flower-winged people... and I don't really have a good defense. Nusquam Locus kinda drifts this story into a supernatural type of setting. I know I messed up with the description and stuff really badly... And I probably screwed the bar scene up. Sorry, but in my defense, I only turned fourteen today; I don't think I'm supposed to know what goes on in a bar...  
><strong>

**Well anyways, I'm sorry I only introduced four new OCs in this chapter. I'm trying to spread the love slowly, like sticky peanut butter on sliced bread. More OCs will make an appearance next chapter, so don't be upset if yours was not shown. I still welcome new OCs, so bring them in~**

**Meanwhile, twenty-one reviews for one chapter? I LOVE YOU ALL. Seriously, you have no idea how flippin' happy I am. I've gotten so much amazing concrit, and OCs, and really... you all are amazing. Way too amazing for me. I don't know why you still stick around my inferior self.  
><strong>

**Credits:**

Mia belongs to Black Mareep

Zeru belongs to Megalink1126

Gabriel belongs to WereDragon EX

Crash belongs to Indigo Hare

All other characters belong to Me or Chewpacabra

**Thank you so much for sticking around and reading. Reviews make me happy.**


	3. Belvedere

**Chapter Three: Belvedere  
><strong>

_"Boom!"_ a resounding blast echoed through the open field, causing the golden grass to ripple. Clouds of dust spiraled and Crash's wicked laughter echoed through the haze. Even Gabriel, who never underestimated his opponents, had to wonder what the girl's plan was, opening a battle with an attack such as Giga Impact, which left her Pokémon open to assault so early in the battle. She seemed unworried, however, and cackled despite the disadvantage to her Electrode, who also laughed.

Gabriel's own choice of Pokémon managed to shake off the attack, ruffling her smooth white feathers and causing the triangular red and blue patterns to shift. The Togekiss spread her wings and took to the sky again, listening for her trainer's orders. "Togekiss, Aura Sphere."

Gabriel half-expected it to be some sort of trap, for something to pop out of the ground, but the pulsing energy ball hit the equally spherical red and white Pokémon easily enough, sending it rolling backwards.

"Awesome job, Boomboom!" Crash cheered, for reasons unknown to the slightly saner mind of Gabriel. "Hit him with a Giga Impact again!"

_If she just keeps ordering Giga Impacts, even with the recharge time, she'll be in the lead... I guess it's time to play evasive_. "Togekiss, dodge it by flying higher." The white Pokémon gracefully flew out of the way of the Electrode's pink and gold charge-attack, climbing higher into the sky.

"Fine, be that way. Dodging attacks, total lame." Crash stuck out her tongue childishly. "Okay, Boomboom, change of plans, go with a Rollout-Spark combo!" The PokéBall-like Electric-type grinned in a somewhat sadistic light. He began to spin, somersaulting forward at a high speed, high enough for the red and white of its body to blend into a pretty-pink color, which was covered up by the dancing of yellow electricity that arced in every direction.

"Togekiss, fly higher up. Electrode is bound to the ground right now." He assessed the field one more time to triple-check. The arena was completely flat, with no way for Electrode to get up while rolling. However, Crash started laughing mockingly.

"Bound to the ground? Ha, Sonic-boom!" Gabriel was a split second too late in realizing Crash's intentions. While still rolling, Electrode released an arc of pure sound and water vapor as the attack broke the sound barrier and struck the ground, causing the Electrode to fly high into the air, before crashing straight into the airborne Jubilee Pokémon in an explosion of electricity. Both fell to the ground, the Togekiss less gracefully. "Who's bound to the ground now? Giga Impact again!"

Gabriel would have face-palmed, but he had no time even to call out a command. Instead, he snapped once, and his starter's eyes snapped open, glowing a vivid blue. The incoming Electrode was outlined in the same hue as he struggled to charge forward and land the devastating hit. However, the Psychic attack gave Togekiss enough time to recover her composure and take to the sky again.

"Boo, unspoken commands, how boring," Crash whined. "Giga Impact, again, Boomboom."

"What's with you and Giga Impact?" Gabriel sighed exasperatedly, snapping once again as Boomboom rose into the sky, covering in a gold and pink aura. Just as he was about to make contact with Togekiss, he was stopped in his tracks once again by a Psychic attack. Crash, however, wasn't fazed.

"Thunder." Gabriel cursed himself. He really was off his game today. At point-blank range the Electrode exploded in electricity that lashed out and caught the Jubilee Pokémon unaware. Boomboom was released from Psychic's clutches, bouncing slightly as it landed on its face with a dull _thunk_.

Gabriel frowned, and clapped his hands twice, at the same time Crash shouted, "Sucker Punch the sucker!" Both Pokémon launched themselves forward at an incredible speed, one on wings of light, the other cloaked in darkness. The Extremespeed and Sucker Punch met in the middle, causing both Pokémon to be knocked back by the force of the resulting explosion.

"Use the cover of the smoke from the explosion," Gabriel called, as he snapped three times. A rain of blue fell down to strike the unknowing Electrode, who groaned as he was struck repeatedly by the rapid-fire Aura Spheres.

"Thunderbolt in the general direction of those Aura Spheres!" Crash shouted, her Electrode complying by sparking yellow and sending off bolts through the cloud of smoke, occasionally hearing a cry from his opponent. Even as the dust cleared, the two continued to exchange projectiles of yellow and blue.

Gabriel started to snap, but before he could finish his third, Crash suddenly shouted, "Okay, use Screech, Boomboom! Screw up those nasty unspoken commands of his!"

Boomboom grinned as he cut off his electricity and emitted a sudden ear-piercing noise. Gabriel winced at the sound, but attempted a try at snapping, clapping, stomping... None of his commands were getting through to Togekiss, who had stopped mid-Aura Sphere at the high-pitched sound. Even when he tried yelling out a command his Togekiss either didn't hear him, or didn't want to take her wings off her ears. He saw Crash cup her hands around her mouth and shout something, though he couldn't hear what. Shortly afterwards, the Electrode plowed straight into Togekiss, with a Giga Impact.

"Togekiss, are you okay?" Gabriel shouted. The Togekiss still seemed disoriented from the Screech and Giga Impact, but nodded her head. "Alright, Extremespeed into a Zen Headbutt." Togekiss became cloaked in an aura-blue sheen as she climbed higher into the air, looped, and came hurtling back down at a stunning speed, crashing into Boomboom in an explosion of blue light and dust.

Crash laughed, despite the fact that her Pokémon just got hit. "Not a bad explosion. But, of course, it's still pretty amateur compared to us, right, Boomboom?" The smoke cleared to reveal a charred, laughing Electrode, who nodded, or nodded as best as a Pokémon with no neck can. "Let's show them what a real pro can do! Explosion!"

"Togekiss, Protect!" Gabriel shouted frantically, relieved when he saw his starter become surrounded in a globe of green. The PokéBall-like Pokémon changed from its normal red-and-white coloring to blinding white to pitch black, before the world the world in front of the two exploded in a cloud of dust, heat, and light. The golden grass was torn from its roots as it flew off in every direction, fluttering in the air like confetti. The sky turned gray as it was obscured by dust, and Gabriel had to shut his eyes to keep sand out of them.

When the cloud cleared, both Pokémon were on the ground. The Electrode was clearly knocked out, still rolling slightly from the momentum of the blast, a crazed grin plastered on his "face", eyes filled with swirls. Meanwhile, Togekiss rose, albeit slowly, clearly in pain from the numerous black scorch barks against her white feathers. Still, she managed to stand back up, victorious, with a cry of her name. Both trainers ran to their starters.

"Excellent job, Boomboom, excellent job! I think that Explosion was better than the one you used to slay the tree!" The Electrode grinned in affection and insanity at his trainer, as he was enveloped in red and returned to his PokéBall.

"You did great, Togekiss. Take a rest." Togekiss cooed as she wrapped her wings around her trainer in a hug, content to return to her Ball, knowing she secured a victory. Gabriel then straightened to look at Crash, who was surveying the burn marks on the grass with interest. "Why did you order that Explosion? You could have won."

Crash cast him a sideways glance with her single almond-brown eye. She then grinned. "You need to lighten up. You won, so why does it matter?"

"It does matter! It wasn't a proper win," Gabriel argued.

Crash shrugged nonchalantly. "You want an explanation? I like explosions. Now excuse me, I'm going to go heal Boomboom so we can go blow some more stuff up. Toodles~"

* * *

><p>"Charlotte? Charlotte, is that you?" Sydney Bjornsen-Schjødt, commonly known as Sydney BS, because that's how he signed his name, and because nobody could every pronounce his name right, blinked once at the sudden noise. He soon disregarded the sound, however, because his name clearly wasn't Charlotte. Or at least he hoped it wasn't; he already got enough jest from his already girly first name.<p>

He was proven wrong when he was tackled by a streak of green sweater and frizzy brown hair, sending him into the grass. _Ow-ow-ow_, he muttered in his thoughts, cursing his low bone density.

"Charlotte! How good to see you!" his assailant piped happily. "Is Edgar doing well? His heart condition is fine? Thank goodness, I've been worried sick about him; he shouldn't be working so hard! You know, the key to a good heart condition is-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second," Sydney protested, putting his hands up as he tried to comprehend this information. He wasn't doing a very good job of it. "First of all, who's Charlotte? Second of all, who are you? And third, can you get off of me now?"

The girl gasped, jumping off of Sydney to stare open-mouthed at the light-brunette teen. Her chocolate eyes looked hurt, but there was a strange clouded, unfocused look to them, which made Sydney slightly nervous. "Charlotte... Could it be... You don't remember me?"

"Um, you see, I don't think I even know you in the first pl-"

He was cut off as the girl interjected, "I'm Marydith Suesan Kanpeki, remember? We defeated Team Plasma together!" The girl then started detailing the details of their 'epic battle', and Sydney was only getting more and more confused. He was thinking of just ditching this girl until he heard a weary voice.

"Louise, let's give it a rest. I'm, um, sure that 'Charlotte' will eventually come to her senses... I guess..." The voice belonged to a boy his age: disheveled shaggy black hair, dark circles under weary blue eyes, unshaven stubble. To say that he looked like he needed some sleep would be an understatement. The girl, Marydith, Louise, whoever she was, crossed her arms.

"Butler, I've told you, my name is Marydith, not Louise," chided the Marydith-Louise girl, to her "butler" who probably wasn't a butler. "Plus, I can tell there's something wrong with Charlotte! She's not herself!"

"Um, sorry, do I get a say in this?" Sydney spoke up. He was ignored.

"I know!" Marydith-Louise suddenly said, eyes clouded yet bright with some idea. "Let's battle again, Charlotte. Just like that first time." Her "butler" looked ready to object, but Sydney beat him to it. Sort of.

"First ti-" Sydney cut off, shaking his head, realizing that protest was useless. "Fine. If I win, you'll stop calling me Charlotte, right?"

"Of course~" Marydith-Louise cheered happily, with suspicious confidence. Both trainers moved apart from one-another, creating a wide space between them in the golden grass.

"Er, 'Butler'," Sydney started awkwardly, not quite sure what to address him as.

"Josh," the teen corrected mildly.

"Right, Josh. You can referee, right?" The black-and-denim-clad boy named Josh lowered his head suddenly, a dark look coming into his eyes, which glanced at the Marydith-Louise girl in what looked like worry. Eventually, he raised his head to look Sydney in the eye, replying affirmative, as he took his spot somewhat between the two.

"This will be a... one on one battle?" He looked at both trainers who nodded in agreement. "Right, a one on one battle between Loui- I mean Marydith Suesan Kanpeki," he corrected as Marydith-Louise gave him a look. "And... what's your name?"

"Sydney Bjornsen-Schjødt."

"And Sydney Beeyoorn... Bajoorn... Er, and Sydney whatever his last name is." Sydney thought about correcting him, but figured it would be too much effort. "Um... Trainers, call out your Pokémon."

"Okay... Let's see... Skarla, come on out." Sydney reached for a red-and-white PokéBall at his belt, tossing it out in a flash of scarlet. The red died down to reveal a yellow, bipedal-ram-like Pokémon, pitch stripes decorating her horns, arms, neck and tail. A red pearl was set on both her forehead and the tip of her tail.

"Aw, an Ampharos? It's so cute!" Marydith-Louise cooed. She then held up her own PokéBall. "Let me show you mine."

"Go, Mew!"

* * *

><p>"This will be a two on two double battle between Temperance Samson and Ryuuko Novik. Trainers, you may send out your Pokémon."<p>

"Really, Ren? 'Trainers, you may send out your Pokémon'? Lame, lame, total lame. You could have said something like 'Warriors, release your minions', or 'Send out your Pokémon now or I'll beat you with a stick' or something cool like that. I'm ashamed to be your twin," the trainer known as Ryuuko sing-songed, a sly smile gracing her elfish features. She winked her right blue eye at her sibling, the counterpart brown eye twinkling in jest.

"...So basically, this is just the point where we release our Pokémon now, right?" said the other girl on the battlefield, Temp Samson, irritatedly. She had already picked her two PokéBalls which she fingered in her lithe hands impatiently.

"Yes, yes, ignore my_ little_ sister. She has no idea what she's talking about," the referee, Ren, replied nonchalantly, waving a dismissive hand at his twin, who pouted.

"That's lame, you're only older by like, ten minutes. Remember, you're getting me a smoothie if I win. Which I will, of course." Ryuuko flicked some of her shoulder-length black hair out of her eyes, smirking at her twin, who rolled his also mis-matched eyes.

The auburn-haired girl opposite Ryuuko frowned irritatedly. It made her want to use the silver rapier at her belt, but the last time that happened, it was a real mess to clean up. Plus, the two twins had Johto's military insignia on their black jacket's sleeves, and Temp wasn't in the mood to get arrested, despite the fact that they weren't even on Earth at the time. Instead, she chose to interject by throwing out her PokéBalls, calling the names of her Pokémon. "Marley, Mikeal, you're up."

Two Pokémon materialized on the battlefield. One was an odd creature that yawned upon appearing. His unusual pink skin was smooth, contrasting with the jester-like red and white collar around its neck, and the gray shell-crown atop his head. The Slowking's partner ran around in a circle hyperly, the brown and cream jagged stripes on her long body blurring.

"A Slowking and Furret?" Ryuuko piped up from the squabble with her brother. "Interesting choice. Look's like it's my turn. Let's go, Vodka, Daiquiri!"

She also threw out two red and white orbs, that flashed red as they released Ryuuko's choice of Pokémon. One looked very similar to Temp's Slowking, Marley, with the same pink skin, size, and shape. However, while the Slowking had a spiral shell atop his head, 'Vodka's shell was latched onto his tail, and it had a look of blank stupidity on his face, unlike Marley's sharp, calculating glare. The other Pokémon was dark blue and insectoid in shape, with a forked horn, gleaming claws, but friendly yellow eyes.

"They're adorable, right?" Ryuuko's question caught Temp off guard. _A Slowbro and Heracross aren't exactly my definition of 'adorable'..._

"All right, let's get this party started, then. Temperence's Slowking and Furret versus Ryuuko's Slowbro and Heracross. Battle, start!"

"Ren, that's just as lame as 'Trainers, you may send out your Pokémon'."

* * *

><p>"Why are there so many rivers in Nusquam Locus?" Sienna grumbled irritatedly as they crossed yet another arch of gray stone, their fourth one so far, bridging over clear running water. "And why do they all defy the laws of physics?"<p>

"Silly, silly girl. You should know by now that Nusquam Locus isn't your normal setting." Cacao giggled, half-skipping, half-fluttering as she pranced ahead of Mia and Sienna. "Rivers are an important part of Nusquam Locus. There are five major ones in total: the Acheron, Cocytus, Phlegethon, Lethe, and Styx. Right now we're standing over the Phlegthon. All five rivers go in a complete loop, and they all encircle one thing, the center of Nusquam Locus. _That_."

She turned, pointing to something in the distance behind her: the tower. At a closer glance, it seemed like the tower had a lot more quirks than meets the eye. Made of crystalline black material, it twisted, winded, spiraled into an odd formation. It was topped with what appeared to be a silver flower, and from that silver flower spouted... water? Intriguingly, the entire tower seemed to act as a fountain, water bubbling from the flower on top and falling in waterfalls down the sides of the tower.

"And_ that_ is," Cacao paused for a second, for lame dramatic effect. "The Thyrsus. The tower that feeds all the rivers in Nusquam Locus. You could also call it Nusquam Locus' headquarters."

"Oh, so that's where you and your flower-buddies go to plot our demise, right?" Sienna said sarcastically. Cacao stared at Sienna for a second, a completely serious look on her face...

Before she burst out laughing, which caused Mocha the Whimsicott to protest as she was jostled. "Oh, please!~ Me and my 'flower-buddies' have never even _been_ in the Thyrsus."

Both Sienna and Mia looked at each-other quizzically. "But, aren't you, like, the runners of this tournament?" Mia asked, a look of confusion on her face.

Cacao shook her head in an annoyingly condescending way, Mocha copying her. "Nah, the 'residents' of Nusquam Locus are divided into two groups, essentially. I belong to the Ales Fiore, which is most of Nusquam Locus' 'population'. The Ales Fiore take care of Nusquam Locus, helping out the Audiats, organizing Trials, running the shops, that stuff. I, myself, own a spectacular coffee shop, the _CHON and CHO Café_-"

"Wait a second... Audiats, Trials, shops?" Mia interjected, looking as confused as Sienna felt.

"Ah, that's right, I didn't explain that yet. Silly me." The smug expression on Cacao's face said otherwise, looking as if she had been expecting that answer. "The Audiats are you. The participants of Cereus Calluna, the ones that have come seeking a wish. There are a rather large amount of Audiats, this time. Far more than usual..." Cacao trailed off, deep in thought, before saying brightly, "No matter, I guess it'll just be a teensy bit harder for you to win~"

"And that brings us to the subject of 'How _do_ you win?'. Most tournaments have something along the lines of tourney trees and knockouts. But that's lame, and Cereus Calluna is cool, so we don't work that way. We operate by Trials. Trials can be anything from battles to tasks to something else that's really cool. There will be a Trial every day, starting tomorrow."

"So what happens if we don't complete a Trial?" Sienna asked, suspicion painting her features. "Let me guess, we die?"

Cacao giggled. "You have a very silly imagination, Sienna, dear. No, we don't kill our Audiats over something like that. In fact, if you fail to complete a Trial, you won't even be kicked out of Cereus Calluna. Besides, it'd be a pain anyway to return you to your world, and if you just sit around all day, that's boring. Nah, Cereus Calluna operates on a system of points."

"Points?"

"Yeah, points. Depending on how well you do in a Trial, you will be given a certain amount of points. And those points are tallied up when Cereus Calluna ends, and the wish is given to the one that is most worthy of it, based on the number of points he or she earned. Keeps the tournament lively and fair." Cacao twirled a lock of her curly brown hair. "Anyways, us Ales Fiore help with the Trials. Get things organized, make sure nobody gets killed, that sort of stuff."

"Okay, so then what are these 'shops'?" Sienna asked.

Cacao gave her a skeptical look. "They're... shops. I mean, you have them in your world, right? You go and buy stuff there? It's not like we invited you here so that all you do are Trials and sight-seeing. I mean, we have better hospitality than that. Like, we have restaurants with human food, and even clothing and souvenir shops. You should see the cute little commemorative snow-globes we sell there. Oh, and I think we might have a stripper's club t-"

"Okay never mind forget I asked," Sienna cut her off.

Cacao pouted, while Mocha snickered. "I said _might_. Besides, even if there is one, it's not like I made it. I'm fine with my coffee shop. Anyways, not all Ales Fiore run shops; we all have different jobs. Like, we'll need to check you two into the hotel sometime later."

"There's a hotel?" Mia asked wonderingly.

"No, we're just going to make you sleep on the ground," Cacao answered sarcastically.

However, Mia wasn't exactly known for her brightness. "Really? But that will ruin my hair!"

"Don't sweat it, sweetheart, I was joking. It would ruin Nusquam Locus' reputation if word got out we treated our beloved guests like that." _Word got out to who? We're in the middle of nowhere,_ Sienna thought. Cacao smiled sweetly. "I guess we'll need to check you two in. Come on, chop-chop, the hotel should be this way." She started to walk off the bridge when Sienna suddenly called after her.

"Wait!" she cried out. "Before, you said Nusquam Locus' population is divided into two, with one being the Ales Fiore... What's the other group?"

Cacao arched an eyebrow. "My, my, my, how sharp of you, Sienna, darling. There _is_ another division of Nusquam Locus. The _Ales Custodes_."

"Ales... Custodes?"

"Yeah. To be honest, even I don't know much about them," Cacao confessed. "All I know is that there are seven of them, and they're the head honchos of Cereus Calluna. They make the Trials, choose the Audiats, run this whole tournament... And they're always in the Thyrsus. Even _I've_ never seen them before. Though, there is a rumor... They're supposed to be appearing at the opening ceremonies."

"Opening Ceremonies?" Mia asked, a curious look upon her face.

"Yeah, just an over-view of Cereus Calluna and how it's going to work. But usually all the stuff is relayed through another person; they've never shown themselves to anyone, not even us Ales Fiore. So that's all the info I have." Cacao shrugged. "Anyways, we need to hurry up. We'll get you checked in at the hotel and then we can head over to the CHON and CHO Café. I need some more coffee."

She started to walk, or float, off, when Mia suddenly stopped her. "Wait a second!"

Cacao seemed slightly annoyed to be stopped again, but asked, "What?"

"You said that Trials involve battles, right?" Mia said cheerily. "Well then, why don't me and Sienna here have a battle? You know, to warm up for the actual tourney?"

Cacao seemed to give this some thought. "Well... I do need my coffee... But that sounds like it'll be interesting. I'm up for it." The winged coffee-addict and Mia both turned to Sienna expectantly. She sighed, sure that this hyper-active moron would hardly be a challenge. Then again, she hadn't had a real battle with someone other than Clair in a long time.

"I don't think I have much of a choice in this matter... But you're on!"

* * *

><p>Even in the day-time, the Thyrsus remained shadowy, courtesy of the slightly-translucent black crystal that formed its walls, preventing much light from coming in, tinting the outside world dark.<p>

Hummingbird pressed herself against the transparent walls, squinting her orange eyes as she surveyed the surrounding area, careful not to fog the glass with her breath. She was intrigued by the human creatures who wandered about. Who interacted, who battled, who argued, who laughed together. It made the winged child frown as a strange foreign emotion swelled in her, though she didn't know what.

"Feeling lonely?" a voice familiar to Hummingbird spoke up. "Or perhaps jealous?"

Hummingbird turned around, her sunset-eyes somewhat angry and hurt as they met Nightingale's streetlight ones. "No, I'm not!" Then she seemed to catch herself and said in a quieter, more forlorn tone, "I mean, I'm not lonely. I'm fine with just you and Skylark and everyone else. You're my family. I don't need anyone else." Hummingbird somehow managed to rock on her heels, despite the fact that she wasn't standing on solid ground, as she stared sheepishly at the ground. "I was just curious about these human creatures."

"That's right, you've never seen them before," Nightingale surmised. He then shrugged. "Well then, I guess I can't blame you for being a little intrigued. But you'll see the truth soon."

Hummingbird frowned. "The truth?"

"That humans are despicable, vile creatures," Nightingale said, a dark smile on his face. Hummingbird cocked her head in confusion.

"Why do we have Cereus Calluna, then," Hummingbird asked innocently, a pondering furrow in her brow, "if humans are such bad things?"

Nightingale smiled again, more genuinely, but still with an air of eeriness. "Hummingbird, you've seen Loon and Gyrfalcon play chess, correct?"

"I hate it when you change subjects," Hummingbird said irritatedly. "But yeah, I watch them play all the time. I don't really get it, though..."

"Well, let me teach you a bit, then. In the game of chess, there are five types of pieces. The King, Queen, Bishops, Knights, Rooks, and finally, the Pawns."

"Pawn... That means, um, what does that mean again?" Hummingbird asked.

"Servants. Slaves. Sacrifices. Things to be manipulated. In all games there are the players and the pawns, the controllers and the ones that are controlled. Cereus Calluna is the same. Humans are just pawns to maneuver for our own uses." Nightingale stepped forward to look through the black glass, observing the ignorant humans below.

"But why do we need them? If they're such weak things that are so easily manipulated? Why can't we get _that thing_ by ourselves?" Hummingbird asked.

Nightingale paused as he thought over his answer. Finally, he replied, "Pawns are interesting little things. Adversity and ambition allows them to bloom into knights and queens. Danger and desire are the keys."

"But even as pawns grow stronger, they are still only pawns." Nightingale smiled. "Pawns in the palm of the player's hand."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Trivia:<strong>_

_**~The title of this chapter, the Belverdere, can mean 'Into war', or 'I declare war against you'. It's mostly symbolic of so many battles starting in this chapter.  
><strong>_

_**~You probably found the names of the rivers of Nusquam Locus familiar, particularly the last one. They all come from Roman mythology (Well, technically, it could be Greek, too, but Roman links to Latin, and this whole story revolves around Latin, so I'm going with Roman), the rivers of the Underworld, Pluto(Hades)'s realm of the dead. In myth, it's said these five rivers run around the Underworld (Similar to how they run around Nusquam Locus), and that these rivers are what lost souls must cross, and what prevents them from leaving. In myth, it's also mentioned that after you cross all five rivers, you will reach the adamantine gate, that lead's to Pluto's palace (Which relates to the Thyrsus)**_

_**~The Acheron is the River of Woe, the Cocytus is the River of Lamentation, the Phlegethon is the River of Fire, the Lethe is the River of Forgetfulness, and the Styx is the River of Hatred and Promises. Since Mia and Sienna are standing by the Phlegethon, it may or may not have to do with foreshadowing for next chapter.  
><strong>_

_**~Thyrsus in Latin means 'stem', which relates to the flower theme, and the fact that the Thyrsus sort of resembles a flower. It can also stand for sting, spike, goad, and other rather negative things.**_

_**~Ales Fiore in Latin means 'Winged Flowers'.**_

_**~Audiats in Latin means 'Wishers'.**_

_**~Cacao's coffee shop's name, the CHON and CHO Café is derived from the chemical equations for caffeine and sugar. Caffeine's composed of four elements: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen, whose periodic symbols spell CHON. Sugars are composed of the three elements Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, hence, CHO. So basically, it's a nerdy way of saying 'Caffeine and Sugar Café'. Currently, I'm pronouncing it 'Kon and Ko Café', simply for alliteration, but you are free to pronounce it however you wish. (It also sort-of has the same acronym as the title of this story. And it technically follows the Latin motif too, since element names are Latin)  
><strong>_

_**~Ales Custodes in Latin means 'Winged Watchers'.**_

* * *

><p><strong>Well, here it is~ Finally, chappie three of CC, yippee~ (Okay I'm stopping now don't shoot me)<strong>

**Looong trivia section this time. Like, added-five-hundred-words-to-my-word-count long. Looong chapter too, my longest chapter ever written at about five-thousand-seven-hundred words.  
><strong>

**But anyways, next time I say I'll be updating soon, shoot me. On that note, I will be updating soon. Now I will go hide from the gunfire.**

**So, today's a very special day for me. June twenty-fifth, 6-25. 625 is a perfect square of a perfect square, making it a fourth power, and then four's a perfect square.**** Which is bad-ass.**** And then I updated this at 4:00, my time, so... (In case you couldn't tell, I have an obsession with perfect squares)**

**Three notes for readers. One, your OC might not appear for a while. This may be because they have an important role that calls for them at a later time, or it might simply be because they are not quite adequate for the occasion.  
><strong>

**My second concern is OCs via review. It's against FF's policies, plus they clog up my review box, which is why I'd ask you to refrain from sending them in a review.**

**Finally, your OC will not win/be bad-ass at everything. I'm sorry, but it's true. It's not because I hate your OC or anything, but it's impossible for every OC to always win. I will try and balance out the win-lose ratio for each OC, though.  
><strong>

**Moving on, this chapter wasn't too bad, but it was mostly for introducing OCs, and explaining some stuff behind Cereus Calluna. Plus the foreshadowing in the end. Sorry to those who thought this wouldn't be a lame-cliched-fic-with-a-conspiracy-behind-the-tourney... Or is it? Hopefully it will still be interesting enough.  
><strong>

**I hope the battle was alright. And I feel like I made all the characters OOC, so tell me if there's anything you want to do, and I'll do my best to change it in the future. And speaking of OCs...**

Sydney belongs to Kyuuketsuki Fang

Marydith/Louise and Josh belong to Megalink1126

Temp belongs to Gweniveve Skyes

Ryuuko and Renton belong to Hitoshura-ha

**I'm not going to repeat credits for OCs I've already credited, as I'm lazy. You can go look at previous chapters for those. **

**Also, a dedication to Kyuuketsuki Fang and Megalink1126 for having that little contest with me. It was a big help in getting me not to procrastinate. ****You should totally check out their stories, _Fin de **Siècle**_ and _Renaissance_, respectively. ****I also dedicate this chapter to the amazing Hitoshura-ha. Whose stories you should also check out, such as _black cherry pie_. All three of them are bad-ass and have better stories than me. They also make bad-ass-amazing OCs. Filled with love. Like jelly doughnuts.  
><strong>

**Wow, even this author's note is long. (I would make an incredibly inappropriate joke about what else is long, but I rated this fic as T, sooo...)  
><strong>

**Thanks for reading, reviews are amazing, and I love you all anyways~  
><strong>


	4. Moschatel

**Chapter Four: Moschatel  
><strong>

"Let's make this one on one, 'kay?" Cacao called from an equidistance of the two battlers. She had produced two flags of gold and silver, the silver one in her left hand pointed in the direction of Mia, the gold one in the paws of Mocha the Whimsicott, perched on her right wing, aimed at Sienna.

"What? One on one? Why?" Mia complained, in the process of choosing a PokéBall from the six at the chain around her waist.

"One, I'm the ref. Two, I need my coffee so this better not take long. Three, I feel like it. Five, I feel like it. Any questions?"

"Hey, didn't you just skip number f-"

"Perfect. Now hurry up with your decisions."

"I'm ready," Sienna replied, a standard red-and-white PokéBall held in her hands. Mia reached for an identical one at her hips, fumbled with the latch, attempted to juggle it as the sphere was flung haphazardly into the air, and somehow managed to catch it, though her blond hair was slightly askew.

"Really? Me too, what a coincidence!" the blue-eyed girl echoed cheerily, taking her position and mirroring Sienna's, with a PokéBall clutched in hand, ready to throw out.

Cacao looked at Sienna, then Mia, with long, exaggerated turns of the head. Trainer and Whimsicott both twirled their flags simultaneously, as if testing them, biding their time. Cacao swirled the near-empty contents of her mug, before downing it in a slow, nonchalant way. "Hmm, so it_ looks_ like you're ready. But are you _really_ re-"

She was cut off by Sienna's irritated sigh and scowl. "Yes we're ready. Just tell us to send out our Pokémon already!"

Cacao shrugged her wings lightly. "My, my, how touchy. It's not very wise to be hasty, Sienna, darling. Sometimes you should just take life nice and s-"

"Shut up and wave your little flag things or I'll go over there and rip your wings off." The Ales Fiore smirked, obviously expecting this answer.

"I was getting to that, dear." Both she and Mocha giggled devilishly, before raising their flags and merrily waving them high. "Do whatever it is that you do."

Sienna rolled her eyes as she tossed out her PokéBall, looking over to Mia's side of the field as she did the same.

"Let's get 'em, Singe!"

"Come on out, Lumaya!"

A purple butterfly with silver-blue wings and large red eyes fluttered above the ground, head swiveling as she took in her unusual surroundings, before focusing in front of her at Sienna's choice of Pokémon, a Goliath in comparison with a tall, proud stance. Its sleek turquoise fur, pale yellow on its stomach-side, shone in the daylight. With a wide, toothy yawn, scarlet spots along the back of his neck erupted in fire.

Sienna smirked at Mia's choice. _Score. We have this one in the bag._ Her Typhlosion, guessing her thoughts, breathed a stream of fire in the air, roaring in agreement.

Mia's Butterfree stared at Singe for a second, before swiveling to stare hard at Cacao, who held her gaze for a few seconds. Then, _"Freee!"_ the Butterfree, Lumaya, flew forward at an incredible pace, straight at the leaf-winged girl.

"Hey!" Cacao exclaimed, jerking out of the way of the crazy Butterfree, who simply swerved to try and attack Cacao again. "What's wrong with your Butterfree?"

"Hmm..." Mia cocked her head, a thinking expression on her face. "I think she's hungry!"

_...You call _that_ hungry?_ The Butterfree was attacking Cacao like a starving rabid Poochyena. If it wasn't so queer, Sienna would be laughing at the annoying plant-woman.

Cacao sighed. "This is annoying. I suppose it can't be helped..." Sienna waited for Cacao to finish her sentence, but she didn't. Instead, she vanished.

"Where'd she go?" Sienna exclaimed in shock. The brunette Ales Fiore had literally vanished.

"Whoa, it's like magic!" Mia also exclaimed in shock. Though it was more of a 'That's so cool!' type of shock than Sienna's.

"Don't worry my sweethearts, I didn't abandon you. It would be quite cruel of me to leave you to fend for your weak little selves like that, and I'm a very generous person." Cacao's irritating little laugh sounded from an unidentifiable direction. "I just don't exist in your world anymore."

"...What?"

"It's the same thing I did when we first met. Think of it as 'A-Butterfree-is-trying-to-eat-me-I'm-going-AWOL-animal-instincts' kind of thing."

"Animal instincts? ...But aren't you a plant?"

"Plants have feelings too!" Cacao exclaimed in a hurt voice.

Lumaya had lost interest in the now-disappeared Cacao, instead taking a battle position in front of Mia. Singe merely looked down on his opponent with a non-committal puff of smoke.

"You go first!" Mia insisted. Sienna smirked. _Your funeral._

"Singe, start things off with a simple Flamethrower!" The Typhlosion opened his mouth almost lazily, before breathing a volley of flames at the Butterfly Pokémon.

"Okay, Lumaya, put up a Light Screen and fly in with a Tailwind!" Mia cried clearly, no trace of worry on her face. Lumaya gave some sort of screech of a cry as a sphere of green surrounded her. Suddenly, a harsh wind picked up, causing Mia's platinum blond hair and blue highlights to blow forward and Singe's Flamethrower to sputter slightly. Lumaya flew forward on the wind, still encased in her glowing shield, and plunged in to the flames.

The green of the Light Screen appeared to flicker as if fought the Flamethrower, the red tongues encasing her. At the last moment, the Butterfree rammed her head into the Typhlosion's cream-colored stomach, effectively shutting off the flames, but causing the Light Screen to shatter.

"Great job, Lumaya!" Mia cheered.

"What do you mean 'great job'? You didn't _do_ anything," Sienna said scathingly. Singe blinked at the Butterfree nonchalantly, debating whether to swat it away or wait for his trainer's orders.

Mia blinked innocently. "Of course I did something! You lost, like, half of your points!"

Sienna also blinked, not so innocently. "Are you high?"

"No, I'm clearly standing on the ground," Mia proclaimed, confused.

Then Cacao's voice spoke up from an undecipherable direction. "Sienna, my dear, Mia is a_ Coordinator_."

Sienna's eyes widened and she nearly doubled over. It made sense; Mia seemed to be like the type who would be a Coordinator, and it explained her battle style, but... _A Coordinator... The last time I've been around a Coordinator was..._

"What's wrong, Sienna?" Cacao's voice didn't sound concerned at all.

"Just shut up," Sienna mumbled, shaking the thoughts from her head. "Singe, just hit her with another Flamethrower."

"Not so fast!" Mia shouted. "Lumaya, use Crunch!"

Singe opened his mouth dramatically. At the same time, Lumaya also opened her mouth, albeit not so dramatically, zipped around the Typhlosion, and closed her "jaws" on Singe's ear.

The fire-starter howled in pain, vigorously spinning and shaking and just trying to _get that goddamn Butterfree off of him_. Alas, it did not work; Lumaya held fast. Singe began to let loose streams of fire, creating black marks on the grass and forcing the two trainers to jump back to dodge the flames. But Lumaya remained unsinged and untouched.

"Control yourself, Singe!" Sienna snapped, not much more in control herself. Singe shot Sienna what appeared to be a middle finger, but Typhlosion didn't even have five fingers, so she couldn't be sure. She looked at Mia, who was still smiling that plastic-surgery smile. "What the hell is wrong with your Butterfree?"

"Oh, Lumaya's probably just hungry, that's all!" Mia chirped.

Sienna stared at her with burgundy eyes. "I'm pretty sure Butterfree don't even have teeth. And even then, they're supposed to be herbivores, not cannibal-bugs. Again, what the hell is wrong with your Butterfree?"

Mia cocked her head to the side, appearing to be thinking hard. Finally, she decided on saying, "Psybeam, Lumaya." Sienna showed off her exquisitely colorful language as Singe was blasted with rainbows, and Lumaya still remained latched onto the Typhlosion's ear.

_I'm losing against a Coordinator with a Butterfree!_ Sienna panicked in her head. _After all these years... After all this training... I'm still nothing!_ "Singe, Flame Wheel!" Sienna yelled in frustration.

Singe became cloaked in fire, and Lumaya had to let go of the Typhlosion, lest she wanted to get fried. Sienna took a deep breath and exhaled shakily.

"Hmm, interesting," Cacao commented. "Flame Wheel is a physical move, but Sienna turned it into a special move. Bravo, Sienna, bravo." From nowhere came a deep, sarcastic clapping.

"Smokescreen, Singe, and then Swift in the cover of the smoke." Sienna took another deep breath, getting back into the flow of the battle again. Singe, synchronizing with his trainer, breathed a heavy cloud of black smoke, enveloping the field in darkness.

"My hair!"

"My coffee!"

Singe fired a volley of glowing stars in a random direction, which arced and hit Lumaya dead-on.

"Good choice," Cacao commented, still not visible, though that wasn't saying much, given the choking smoke. "Smokescreen lowered everyone's accuracy, but with Swift, that hardly matters, since it will always hit."

"Why are you annotating our match like we aren't the only ones here?" Cacao giggled, and Sienna could imagine her smirk. The orange-clad girl rolled her eyes.

"Lumaya, get rid of this smoke with Silver Wind!" Sienna felt the thick air stir and then clear as a gust of silver blew past, blowing black and silver over Singe and her.

Sienna muttered curses. _It was kind of stupid to think that I could win this battle in the cover of smoke._ "Flame Wheel, Singe!" Her fire-starter charged forward, blazing and leaving black marks on the golden grass beneath him.

Mia's eyes widened. "Bug Buzz!" Lumaya's silver wings began to vibrate, and a horrible screech hit Singe dead on, causing him to stop in his tracks, shut off his flame, and cover his ears in pain.

"Snap out of it!" Sienna commanded, but her Pokémon wasn't listening, even as his opponent shut her Bug Buzz off and blew a cloud of purple dust at the Typhlosion.

Singe grimaced in pain as the Poison Powder struck and the deadly spores were absorbed in his pelt. He began to sway on his feet.

"Now use Supersonic!"

"Get out of there, Singe!" Sienna knew that she couldn't afford to have Singe poisoned and confused. Luckily, the Fire-type managed to dart out of the way of the ringed waves. "We have to finish this quick. Use Dig."

The ground beneath Singe gave way as he attacked it with his claws. Lumaya looked at the ground warily. "Fly up, Lumaya!" Mia ordered her Pokémon, who obliged, soaring high up.

"Flamethrower!" The ground far beneath Lumaya glowed red for an instant, before giving way to a column of flame. Lumaya shrieked as she was torched by the attack. Her silvery-white wings were charred and stained with ash, flapping wildly in an attempt to keep herself aloft.

"Finish it now! Blast Burn!" Sienna shouted at the top of her lungs. Singe began to inhale, a light flickering in his throat. The flames on his back receded, as if he were concentrating every single bit of fire in his body. Mia's eyes widened, and she tried to shout something, only to be cut off as Singe let loose a beam of concentrated fire, nearly white in the center but flecked with burning color on the edges. On contact, it exploded like a firework into smaller tongues of uncontrolled flame, streams of reds and oranges fluttering and separating in the air.

Cacao flickered back into existence and raised the flag for Sienna's side. Her face was entirely passive as her golden eyes examined Sienna with interest. Mia ran up to her defeated Pokémon and after making sure the carnivorous Butterfree wasn't dead, recalled her in a flash of red. The blond girl looked up at Sienna with wide cerulean eyes.

Sienna suddenly realized her fists were clenched and trembling. Her long nails bit into her sweaty palms, as she exhaled a shaky breath that she didn't even know she was holding.

_I'm still weak. After all this time, it's still not enough. _Her fingers still shook as she reached for her PokéBall and recalled her starter, who looked at her with an expression of pure concern before disappearing in red. _But I'm already here, so I can only keep moving forward.  
><em>

* * *

><p>"Daiquiri, Brick Break the ferret!"<p>

"Marley, stop that Heracross in its tracks with a Psychic!"

"Vodka, help Daiquiri out with your own Psychic!"

"Mikeal, distract that Slowbro with some Fury Swipes!"

The Heracross leaped forward, a claw glowing with white light as it closed in on Mikeal. However, he found himself stopped in his tracks as a blue aura surrounded him, the culprit being the Slowking whose intelligent eyes glowed the same blue that surrounded Daiquiri. His victory was short-lived, however, when the Heracross' partner glowed with a similar blue hue, and the blue bipedal-stag beetle lurched forward again, his claw colliding with the surprised brown-and-cream Normal-type who cried out in pain, but quickly recovered and darted over to Vodka with a glow in its claws, slashing with a vengeance. Neither side was winning, losing, or giving an inch.

"Vacuum Wave!" Daiquiri shot a bundle of silver zephyrs at Vodka and Mikeal, hitting them both squarely and sending out clouds of dust.

"What are you doing? That's your own Pokémon, there!" Temp shouted, yelling, "Marley, stop the Heracross with Water Pulse," as an afterthought.

With bored nonchalance, the black-haired military girl commanded, "Daiquiri, charge through it with a Megahorn. Vodka, keep powering up with a Curse," before turning her full attention on her opponent, shrugging. "Vodka's fine. He's too lovable to feel something like that."

Though her way of wording was... unusual, Temp had to agree with Ryuuko. While the Furret would clearly be hurt by an attack such as the Fighting-type Vacuum Wave, a Slowbro would resist it due to its second Psychic type. To prove her point, the smoke cleared and Vodka stared straight forward, relatively unscathed, with a completely blank expression on his face, while Mikeal was sprawled across the grass.

Meanwhile, Marley's eyes narrowed at Daiquiri, and he opened his mouth, shooting a stream of high-pressure water at the Heracross, who simply charged through the stream, his forked horn glowing green as it struck Marley in the stomach. Meanwhile, Vodka glowed with a pink energy.

"Marley, Zen Headbutt while it's close!"

"Blow it away with a Vacuum Wave, Daiquiri!"

The Slowking charged forward, albeit rather slowly, with his shell-crown glowing blue, only to be knocked back by a strong gust of silver wind that blew at Temp's auburn hair. The Sinnoh-born girl tightened and untightened her fists in annoyance. "That Heracross is annoying." For a brief moment she regretted the choice not to send out Samwise, her Braviary. He would have made sure that annoying bug went down. "Marley, hold him down with Telekinesis. Mikeal, do what you do best: Fire Punch!"

Ryuuko sucked in a deep breath and muttered something that sounded like, "Oh, _shit_," but Temp didn't really dwell on that. The Bug and Fighting-type suddenly became enveloped in a blue glow as it was suspended in the air. Mikeal darted towards the immobile Heracross; his tiny fist blazed as the fiery attack struck.

For a moment, nothing moved. Then Ryuuko muttered, "Oh for Arceus' sake..." and all hell broke loose.

Daiquiri suddenly began to flail wildly in mid-air, making sounds that seemed almost primal. Despite the good hold Marley had on him, the Telekinesis shattered instantly. Temp and her Pokémon immediately went on guard, expecting the rabid Heracross to storm them.

They didn't expect Daiquiri to swoon dramatically, before repeatedly ramming his head on the ground.

"Daiquiri, snap out of it!" The mismatched-eyed girl commanded. She didn't seem surprised at all, only slightly annoyed.

"What's wrong with your Heracross?" Temp asked, more out of curiosity than concern.

"He has some stupid honor code that says if he gets one hit on him, he will be shamed forever, and therefore needs to kill himself." Ryuuko sighed. "Change of plans. Vodka, Psychic!"

Vodka suddenly stopped his Curse power-up. He blinked, as if comprehending the command. Then he lifted his arms and Daiquiri froze, trapped in blue.

_This is my chance,_ Temp thought, albeit slightly bitterly. She didn't want to win by some Heracross' stupid crazy "honor code," but she wasn't quite nice enough to lose on purpose. "Mikeal, another Fire Punch! Marley, you break Vodka's Psychic by attacking him with a Signal Beam."

"Oh no you don't!" Ryuuko shouted, a wicked gleam in her eyes. "It's time to improvise. Vodka, defend yourself!"

The Slowbro gave a slow bellow that sounded more like a moan. Just as Marley's Signal Beam was unleashed, it was intercepted. By a Heracross.

"Y-You're using your Pokémon as a shield?" The auburn-haired girl stuttered in surprise as Mikeal was swept off his feet as a big blue bug crashed into him. "That's... That's..."

"Ingenious? I thought so." Ryuuko smiled. "Vodka, drop Daiquiri on the Furret." The Heracross floated his way over to the still confused Furret, before being dropped. Daiquiri immediately began to try to hit his head on the ground. Instead, he ended up headbutting Mikeal repeatedly into the ground.

"Marley, help Mikeal!" Temp shouted. The Slowking's eyes glowed blue as Daiquiri was frozen once more. "Now Fire Punch again, Mikeal!" The Furret began her fiery onslaught.

"This is annoying," Ryuuko mused. "Vodka, let's go with Trick Room and a little special something."

Vodka gave a wide yawn, and from his yawn a pulse seemed to spread around the battlefield, distorting the areas it touched and turning them to negative, before disappearing. Mikeal seemed to be moving at a Shellos' pace. Daiquiri, who had been dropped on the ground, was trying to ram his head into the ground again, but was doing so in slow-motion. The only ones who seemed unaffected were the humans, Vodka, and Marley. After the Trick Room had descended on the arena, Vodka's eyes glowed blue for a second, and Temp tensed herself for something to happen. But nothing did.

"Alright, Vodka, use Fling!" Ryuu's mismatched blue and brown eyes flashed with triumph.

"Fling?" Temp wondered, surprised. _What is there to Fling?_

Her question was quickly when Vodka ran at a disturbingly fast rate, straight to Daiquiri. With a fluid movement that seemed strange in a Slowbro, the pink Pokémon picked up the slow-motion Daiquiri by the horn, and hurled him at Marley. Caught by surprise, Marley took the direct hit, giving a cry of surprise and pain, before falling the the ground, eyes swirled in unconsciousness.

"What's wrong with you?" Temp shouted in surprise and worry for her Pokémon, although she had to admit it was a good attack. _Fling is a Dark-type move, which is super-effective against Marley, and was made even more powerful because of the fact that he was hurling a huge, heavy bug. In addition, its power was increased from the Attack power-up when the Slowbro was using Curse. With Trick Room, his Speed was reversed, and boosted even beyond that because of the Speed penalty when he was using Curse. _"Don't you care about your Pokémon?"

Ryuu looked at Temp in interest. "Of course I do. Vodka is an adorable emergency food supply, and Daiquiri is... well, Daiquiri. But it's not as if they'll die from a practice battle. Besides, what business is it to _you_?"

"My Pokémon are my family. They're the only ones who will never leave me. If it weren't for them I would be alone! That's why I'm here for Cereus Calluna in the first place!" Temp felt a surprisingly bitter taste in her mouth as she looked to the ground, feeling guilty that she had let Marley down by losing against this girl who didn't even care about her Pokémon. Renton looked at the auburn-haired girl strangely from his place as a ref. "That's why I respect my Pokémon. I guess you wouldn't know, seeing as you have a twin to keep you company."

"Is that so," Ryuu said in a breezily cool voice, not sounding sympathetic in the slightest. She glanced at her twin, and Temp was surprised by how cold Ryuu's gaze was, and how unhappy Renton's own gaze was.

"C'mon, Renton, let's go. You owe me a smoothie," Ryuu said in an oddly monotonic voice as she took out two PokéBalls and returned her Pokémon, before turning around and beginning to walk away.

"Wait!" Temp cried. "The battle isn't finished ye-" Her voice was stopped cold when a beam of bright white light descended from the teal sky and struck the still frozen Mikeal, causing the grass to be ripped out of the ground from the force of the blast. When the light faded, Mikeal had fainted, and the grass around him was charred black in a perfect circle.

Temp's eyes widened. _What was... From before. 'A little special something'... she ordered a Future Sight attack, then. A delayed attack._

Ryuu paused, before replying, "It is now."

* * *

><p>Josh gave a wry grin as he looked over at Louise's opponent's face, and Louise threw out her PokéBall. It shifted from shock to horror to confusion to skepticism; Josh thought he took it a lot better than most other people.<p>

_"Starmie!"_ 'Mew' cried out on appearance, spinning and causing her ten purple legs and red gem to flash.

"It's... It's... It's a Starmie?" Sydney said questioningly.

Louise cocked her head, confused. "No, it's obviously a Mew." Louise's chocolate eyes suddenly grew wide. "Oh no, Charlotte, did you go blind?"

"I- Uh- Er-" Sydney tried to think of something intelligent to say. Instead, he noticed something, and his blue eyes widened. The blood drained from his face as he took a few nervous steps back, before scurrying a few more meters away. "It's... It's... It's a Starmie...!" he repeated, this time more in alarm than in question.

"No, it's most definitely a Mew!" Louise argued again.

"Is something wrong?" Josh queried.

"Seafood... allergies..." Sydney groaned, already feeling his throat itch. "Never mind, I'll be fine. I think."_ I'm going to die._ Josh gave him a skeptical look, while Louise beamed. "Um... I guess you can have the first move?"

"No-no-no-no-no-no, _you_ have the first move. I insist." Louise beamed.

"Uh, thanks," Sydney said. There wasn't really anything else he could have said that wasn't a jumbled mass of confusion. "Skarla, Thunderbolt, I guess," the dirty-blond-haired boy mumbled. His Ampharos raised her arms, and with a cry, lit up like a Christmas tree. An arc of lightning separated from her, aimed straight for "Mew."

"No worries, Mew! Counter it with an Aura Sphere!" Louise shouted confidently, and Josh's heart lurched. "Mew" gave a worried mechanical sound, that switched to a screech of pain when the super-effective Thunderbolt hit her.

"Great job defending yourself, Mew!" Louise cheered. Sydney's facial expression matched that of his Ampharos': very confused.

Josh felt sick. _I have to help her. But I'm stuck._ He fingered a particular PokéBall at his belt, his hands itching to just throw it out. But he couldn't.

Hesitantly, Sydney called for another Thunderbolt, and Louise chidingly ordered another Aura Sphere. The Thunderbolt met its mark, and this time the Starmie pointedly turned to Josh. Despite its complete lack of a face, Josh could still feel the starfish's "eyes" boring into him, a metaphorical eyebrow raised with impatience, like: _"Dude, getting hit by sheep-lightning is _painful_. Do something."_

Josh tried to send _"I'm trying"_ waves at the Starmie, which made him feel kind of stupid. He took a PokéBall from his belt and whispered something to it, before pressing the button in the middle.

Everything went white, even though Josh had closed his eyes in advance.

"Hey, what was that?" Sydney cried out just as the light died down. "A Flash attack? You didn't do that, right, Skarla?" The Ampharos shook her head, partially in reply to her trainer, partially to shake the light out of her head. "Then was it the Starmie? I didn't hear her trainer say anything," he muttered in slight confusion. "Never mind that, then. Thunderbolt, again."

Josh looked up towards the sky and nodded. In his mind he spoke clearly, _You know what to do.  
><em>

The arc of electricity's aim was dead-on, despite the Flash attack. Just as it was about to strike, however, a blue glow traced the outline of the lightning, stopping it dead in its tracks. For a few seconds everything seemed to be frozen, until the lightning began to move again. In the opposite direction. The Ampharos gave a cry, more out of surprise than pain, as she was struck by her own lightning.

"What was that...?" Sydney muttered in surprise at the Starmie, who had on a smug non-face. "But the trainer didn't say anything, though..." He glanced at Louise suspiciously, who was smiling victoriously, but Sydney had a feeling that Starmie's attack had nothing to do with her trainer.

Suddenly a sphere of icy-blue appeared in front of Starmie's red gem and a jagged beam shot out from it, aimed at his Ampharos. Sydney's eyes widened and he shouted, "Cotton Spore!"

Skarla put her yellow arms close to each-other, and between them grew a large white puff of cotton, which she threw out to intercept the Ice Beam. The timing was a tad late, however, and after a short standstill between the cotton and the ice, the wad of now frozen fluff was thrown back at its creator, who gave a sharp bleat as she was hit.

_My timing is off. I can't react immediately because the attacks aren't spoken commands,_ Sydney mused. _But where are these attacks coming from? It doesn't look like the trainer is doing the ordering, and if the Pokémon is acting on its own, then it should have acted on its own in the first place.._. "Skarla, buy us some time with a mass Cotton Spore!" he ordered. His Ampharos began to summon more balls of cotton, which floated in the air and blocked the Starmie's way so she couldn't get a clear shot.

Louise babbled a bunch of random commands at her "Mew," all of which her Pokémon could not follow. Instead, the Starmie began shooting down the cotton balls with Ice Beams, and Sydney struggled to think of a plan. "Start charging a massive Cotton Spore," he ordered, not entirely sure what he was planning to do with it.

Just as the last mini Cotton Spore was knocked down, the enormous Cotton Spore was ready, nearly three meters wide. Just as Sydney was struggling to think of what to do with it, "Mew" advanced with another Ice Beam.

"Skarla! Um..." Sydney struggled to think of an intelligent command. "Improvise!"

Skarla apparently did know what to do with the giant Cotton Spore. With a cry, she threw the cotton ball into the Ice Beam, and for a second, the momentum of the Cotton Spore combated the icy energy. Then it started to get pushed back.

Fortunately, Sidney's Pokémon knew what to do better than the trainer himself. She ran forward and punched the Cotton Spore with a fist of fire. The Grass-type attack caught fire and flew straight into the Starmie, who, despite being resistant against Fire attacks, was still caught by surprise by the giant flaming ball of flaming cotton.

"Whoa. Nice one, Skarla," Sydney said, impressed and slightly intimidated. "Um, catch it off-guard with Thunderbolt."

Skarla again shot a bolt of electricity at the starfish, but the Starmie was already moving, faster than lightning... literally. She began to spin, her body parallel to the ground, and a wind picked up around her, as well as traces of green fire. Josh felt his shaggy black hair, streaked with fading red highlights, blow out of his face in the harsh green tornado. The giant Cotton Spore, still burning, was sucked into the vortex before being dissolved into tiny fragments of flame. The previously frozen Cotton Spores were also drawn in. Skarla's Thunderbolt hit the fiery Twister harmlessly, before being swept into the winds itself. Then the brewing hurricane, spiraling with green dragon-fire, ice, cotton, and electricity, began to separate from the purple Water-type, aimed straight for Skarla.

"Light Screen!" Sydney shouted on impulse. The yellow ram-like Pokémon was quick to conjure a barrier of green around herself, but after a few seconds in the tempest, it was ripped out of existence. The Ampharos was bombarded by the Twister, giving out a cry of pain. However, when the gale subsided, the Electric-type was still standing.

"Alright, good job, Skarla!" Sydney encouraged his Pokémon. "Let's use Discharge!"

Josh's breath caught suddenly as tendrils of electricity shot out from the Electric-type. One hit Starmie directly, and the other shot straight into the sky.

_"Xaaaa!"_ There was a bright flash from above, and all three trainers looked up. Like a falling star, a streak of green and silver shot towards the ground, landing right in the middle of the battlefield and creating a stir of dust that enveloped the field.

"Xatu," Josh whispered, not daring to call out his starter's name. He fumbled for the totem-like Pokémon's PokéBall, and breathed a sigh of relief as, in a flash of crimson, the Mystic Pokémon was recalled before the dust cleared. When it did, Sydney and his Ampharos looked extremely confused by the crater in the ground.

"Hey, did you see tha-" Sydney started, before being cut off by Josh.

"It.. It... It was nothing," Josh lied. "Uh, I hope you don't mind, but can we cut this battle short?"

"Uh, what?" Sydney began to look even more confused. "Well, sure, but-"

"Butler!" Louise said in a high, chiding voice with a pout on her face. "Charlotte still doesn't remember, though! We can't leave until she-"

"It... It's alright," Sydney blurted out, not really thinking. "I- Uh, I remember you, Marydith. I think..."

Louise beamed. "Oh, you do, Charlotte? I'm so, so happy!" Josh felt a twinge of sorrow at the light of her smile: bright, but too bright. _Not like before..._ "Here, Charlotte, do you remember Mew, too?" She held up her "Mew" by it's crystal-like legs as if it were an adorable Teddiursa bear. Sydney visibly flinched and took many steps back.

"Uh, yes, yes I do," Sydney said quickly. "It was really nice to meet you, uh, again, Louise. I mean Marydith. And you too, Josh. I think I'll be going now."

Josh watched the brunette boy walk away, very quickly, with his Ampharos chasing happily after him. The blue-eyed teen gave a sigh of relief, thankful that the other trainer hadn't suspected him.

He turned to look at Louise wearily, who was chatting away happily to the air. _Arceus,_ he thought, _I really hope this tournament thing works..._

* * *

><p>"Hey, you. Yeah, you."<p>

Kelvin knew that voice. Rude, cocky, uncaring... It was the same voice that came out of his own mouth every day, if not a bit older.

His immediate reaction: annoyance.

Kelvin's annoyance increased when he turned around to face stormy gray-blue eyes.

"What do you want?" Kelvin asked equally rudely. The lanky teen he addressed was slouched casually with hands in jean pockets, waved light-brown hair, and a glowing cigarette between stained teeth. Vaguely Kelvin noted the similarities between the teen and himself, although his own hair was auburn, his eyes were a brighter shade of blue, he was a bit shorter than the teen, and he didn't smoke.

"Rude kid," the brunette teen mused between his cigarette. "I was just hoping for a battle. 'Cause, you know, that's what trainers do. They go up to strangers and ask for a brawl."

"But generally they tend to introduce themselves first," Kelvin said in a flat tone, although he was vaguely interested. The auburn-haired boy was somewhat tired of the weak trainers he battled in his own world, and was looking forward to the chance of actually meeting a worthy opponent, like the letter had promised.

"And generally people say their own names before asking for others'," the brunette teen replied airily. "But I'm not really one for manners and morals, so screw that shit. My name's Russell Warren, but you can call me Russ. Pleasure to meet you." He didn't extend a hand to shake, and his stormy-blue eyes were far from welcoming. Not that Kelvin's own icy gaze was any more warm.

"I'm Kelvin Irvine," the auburn-haired boy replied distractedly, fiddling with the PokéBalls at his belt.

"One should look a person in the eye when they're talking," Russ said rather hypocritically as he began to walk a good distance away from Kelvin, before turning around with a red and white PokéBall in his hand, a brazen flash of lightning in his storm eyes. "If they're equals, that is," he finished.

Kelvin rolled his eyes, but a small smirk set on his face and he felt something he hadn't felt in a while: anticipation. "Touche," Kelvin muttered, also taking a few steps back, before selecting a PokéBall and tossing it out. "Caiman, it's your turn."

From the red appeared a blue scaly figure, scarlet ridges cresting his head, back, and tail. White fangs protruded from his mouth, and his amber eyes flashed in annoyance at his trainer, as if saying, _If this is another Bug Catcher, I'm going to turn you into a wallet_.

"A Feraligatr," Russ mused. "Not bad for a kid. Come on out, Ace!" The PokéBall erupted in light, and a silhouette emerged from it, flickering in the air as he flew circles in the sky, his red and translucent wings blurring as they buzzed, his body becoming a green streak against the teal sky.

"A Yanmega," Kelvin muttered.

"No, it's obviously an Arceus," Russ said sarcastically. "I suppose I should let you have the first move."

"No," Kelvin argued, an arrogant tone seeping into his voice. "I think the underdog should always have the first move."

The cigarette-smoking teen cocked his head, before smirking between his smoke. "Tch, cheeky kid. Fine, I guess I'll just have to teach you some manners the hard way."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Trivia:<strong>_

_**~The title of this chapter, the moschatel, means 'weak but winning.' Um, it's like how Sienna thought she was weak but she still won. Er, yeah, that doesn't make sense really ignore this.  
><strong>_

_**~So yeah, Mia and Sienna had a battle along the Phlegthon, which is the River of Fire... and Sienna used a Typhlosion... Which is a Fire-type... Uh, yeah.**_

_**~According Black Mareep, Lumaya, the name of Mia's Butterfree, means free in Filipino.**_

_**~According to Kyuuketsuki Fang, Skarla, the name of Sydney's Ampharos, is short for skarlagenrød, meaning scarlet (Even though Ampharos are yellow).**_

_**~Sienna's first name means 'a dark reddish color.' Her last name, Roux, means 'red.' She has a warm-colored color scheme and a Typhlosion for a starter. Kelvin's first name means 'blue river.' His last name, Irvine, means 'water.' He has a cool-colored color scheme and a Feraligatr for a starter. (Can anyone say 'foreshadowing'?)**_

_**~The name of Kelvin's Feraligatr, is derived from a subfamily of alligators, Caimaninae, which is often shortened to just 'caiman.'**_

* * *

><p><strong>So... I will pretend that it hasn't been five months since I last updated, even though my profile says I'm supposed to update this monthly. And now I will go run away from the angry mob.<strong>

**Anyways, the reason I haven't been updating recently is because I'm super busy since I just started high school and I have a whole bunch of extracurriculars and stuff. Ew. I'm really sorry, but updates will probably be slow. I still will try to finish this, though.**

**Apologies go to Black Mareep and Gwen for their characters losing. Especially to Gwen. Ouch, that was pretty harsh on Temp.**

**Apologies also go to Happy, Fang, and Shelby. I totally butchered Ryuu and Sydney and Russ, but it was partially for effects. Russ punching Kelvin in the face probably would not be good for character development.**

**And apologies go to everyone for how shitty and boring this chapter was. Granted, it was like more than three-fourths battle scenes, but I did try to spice things up by giving you guys a little character background in the process. But really, this chapter was a whole bunch of blah. I'm so sorry.**

**As a general sort-of poll to improve this story, I would like to know what you want to see more of, less of, what you think needs changing, etc. I'd also really like to know if it's hard to keep track of characters or if it's hard to picture them. Or if my dialogue seems fake. Or if my battles are too long and boring and dumb. Or if my whole story is dumb.**

**(I've been having self-esteem issues lately. I've been reading too much of Happy's/Fang's/Oz's/Mega's/Cele's/other-assorted-amazing-people's stuff. Why are you even reading this? You should be reading their stuff. GO)  
><strong>

**Anyways, moving on (author's note, y u so long?). Today is a very, very, very special day.**

**Happy birthday, Chew. You're the bestest, bestest, bestest, sexiest, most amazing best friend/clone/wifey/Scotsdude/Lady Gaga/face/lawnmower ever. Without you, this whole story wouldn't have come together. Without you, I wouldn't have come together. Without you, the universe wouldn't have come together. Will you marry me? (sorry, Book [and Elijah]~)**

**Anyways, credits go to:**

Russ belongs to FirebirdXoX

Kelvin belongs to me

**And finally, a character that actually completely belongs to me appears. Actually, the only character that completely belongs to me appears. All the others are pretty much partially made with Chew, the amazing aforementioned person. Kelvin is my one and only Audiat in this story. He will also not be winning the tourney.**

**That's about all! Ciao, folks~ The birthday girl would like you very much to review. This has nothing to do with my own egocentric needs.  
><strong>


End file.
